Well this was different. How many of you have read a mystery/thriller that involves paleontology and dinosaur bones? None? Yeah, me, too. But wasn't this interesting, informative, and just plain great. I had a few bones to pick (pun intended) but not many.

So glad this is a series.

I like how this is written; it's fairly easy to imagine considering bone fields aren't something an average person gets to see in their lifetime. It's an amazing book rife with adventure, thrills and a hefty dose of interesting facts in both archeology and paleontology. Highly recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Anamcara Press for this free ARC. This review is made of my own accord, with no monetary compensation whatsoever from the names mentioned above and/or the rightful owners of this ARC.

Interesting story, interesting characters, good ending. The detective uncovers details and interconnections with each of the digging team. Any of the team could be responsible for or part of the disappearance of the head guy. The dinosaur dig adds to the overall story. The end has a good twist. A pretty good mystery in the wilds of Wyoming..

I read the second book in this series first and I was hooked. So I went back to the first and was just as impressed.

This narrative is just nota mystery to be solved, but I found it a learning experience too. In this case paleontology, a most worthwhile endeavor. Combining science with investigative skills makes for an interesting read.

I love the main character, a multi-leveled individual with deep scars and an interesting background. I look forward to learning more about him.

I encourage you to try this series. You won’t be disappointed.

this was a great mystery, the characters were great and I really enjoyed trying to figure out what was happening in the story.

Krishtalka takes his private eye with the difficult to pronounce name - Harry Przewalski - and sets up his shop, not in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, but in Pittsburgh, a forgotten Midwestern city where the name Carnegie still looms large. Looms large as in the universities and the dinosaur museums built bone by bone from the finds unearthed in the great Wyoming bone fields.

And this is important because this is a version of the old murder mystery in the deserted Catskills hotel with only a handful of suspects, each overflowing with motive. The museum’s chief paleontologist has disappeared on a dig in the fields. He appears to have walked off on foot in the early morning and no one knows if he’s alive or dead. Harry, who once was a budding paleontologist himself before his heart was ripped open and his world turned upside down returns to his old haunts in cowboy country to find the remaining diggers surly mean and hating on dear lost Marchand. One is his his old flame and co-researcher. One is his latest flame, unceremoniously used and dumped when Marchand got bored. One is a professor at another university accusing Marchand of intellectual theft. One has been caught selling off bones to European collectors. One is an anti-evolutionist who simply doesn’t fit in with this bunch. And this is before we ever get to the rancher’s wife or the jilted rancher with a shotgun. Wait till they are all gathered together for the denouement.

Krishtalka’s writing style is quick, economical, and utterly absorbing. There are several more books on this series and, if this one’s a representative sample, they are definitely worth reading.

A very slow burner for the first half of this book but keep going it improves with age.
Harry Przewalski is a PI, ex palaeontologist who is hired to find missing Peter Marchand - who disappeared from an excavation in Wyoming.
Harry travels to the dig where he meets Marchand’s co workers who all seem to have a motive for doing away with him but has Marchand been killed or just disappeared?
Harry’s backstory is interesting if a little gory and I found him the most likeable, believable character in the book as some of the others were a bit two dimensional and not believable.
Book definitely picks up pace in second half and overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it - even if like me dinosaurs is not a big interest for you.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review.
3.5 Stars

the setting - a bone dig, if it's not clear by the title - was the allure of this book for me; i downloaded it on a whim while browsing the read now section of netgalley. and the while introduction is nice, the story quickly becomes a mess of characters with indistinguishable voices, tangled together so thoroughly that i'm still not sure who is who. the dialogue is cliche, with infodumps making up most of it, and the "investigation" throughout is boring; harry is really useless, yet somehow manages to come out on top, breaking the case despite seeming to do very little. all the players involved are stereotypes of stereotypes, the women little more than props to be used for their sexuality, afforded no characterization beyond their relationships with men; the two gay men are subject constantly to homophobia, which is rarely challenged and condemned. (i don't believe in the excuse of "it's appropriate for the era", and anyway this book is set in like 2000, so it's not really that far in the past, despite how it may feel.)

i just don't really believe in any of the characters nor the plot, everything was very surface-level, despite seeming to attempt to appear philosophical and introspective; it's just flat and meaningless, a rushed ending, boring and frustrating and honestly offensive in the shallow carelessness with which every woman is handled. it's hard to read. i was incredibly bored when i wasn't annoyed. getting through the last 60% was a herculean feat.

So rewarding to stumble across a new crime series and find an author whose writing appeals as much as to characters they fashion.
Harry is a PI in Pittsburgh, a refreshing original guy not the traditional gumshoe detective.
He is hired by the Carnegie Museum of National History to found one of their best palaeontologists who has gone missing on an archeological dig in Wyoming. Peter Marchand has a history of taking off for a few days, they want him found and a scandal avoided. Harry goes to the camp in situ and interviews those students and academics still reviving dinosaur bones from this unique landscape.
This is an old fashioned crime mystery, with a limited number of suspects, everyone Harry speaks to seemingly has a reason for wanting Marchand to disappear.
I have no real interest in fossils and bones but I did find the science shared and the history introduced both educational and entertaining. It added to my enjoyment of the story and kept me riveted in the novel.
There is a great sense of place. From the vast expanse of the bad lands and it’s towns harking back to more prosperous times. To the busy street of Pittsburgh and the dusty maze of rooms and forgotten exhibits in the Museum.
Harry is a great character; able to hold his own in any company but it seems prone to female attention, a weakness for tobacco and alcohol and an unresolved past.
He is finely drawn without being fleshed out completely. Original and a easy going, quiet approach to his work. He is ignored or dismissed at you peril.
Bolder brush strokes are used to convey rural Wyoming. The authentic language and attitude of its citizens from Sheriff to prospective Governor. This resonates, is always colourful and gives a honest feel. The historical references and details give the wider canvas a sense of depth and realism many novels miss or edit away.

EXAMPLES:

“Harry ...... slowly headed east out of Shoshoni. There was a large church sign near the edge of town, warning that the road to hell was washed in alcohol. The railroad had built Shoshoni in 1904. By 1906, it had 2,000 people and twenty-three saloons. Now it had shriveled to one bar and 487 people, too late and too few souls for a new temperance movement.”

“Harry hit Cody at eight o’clock.. ........ William “Buffalo Bill” Cody founded the town in 1896, built the Irma Hotel, named it for his daughter, and moved in. It was now a thriving anachronism, feeding tourists his gun-slinging lore. The Irma Hotel staged an old west gunfight every evening, Monday through Saturday, June through August. After sixty years, Harry thought, it was the longest running play off Broadway, a one-act fable of swagger and bravado, giving the crowd the old west it wanted.”

“He took Forbes Avenue east out of downtown through the Hill District, a tough, low-income neighborhood that had inspired the television cop show Hill Street Blues.”

This is a gem of a book, for me a new and interesting author. I can’t wait to start on ‘Death Spoke’.

I was really pleased to,learn this is the start of a series. We often see mysteries and thrillers featuring experts in a field other than criminology but this is the first I have read which features a paleantologist. I enjoyed learning more about the field in the context of a strong plot and well rounded characters.

World-renowned museum paleontologist, Peter Marchand, goes missing while leading a dinosaur dig in the sweltering, desert badlands of Wyoming. He has made enemies from his serial womanizing, ruthless dealings, religious blasphemy, and unorthodox theories. Hired to find him, Pittsburgh private detective Harry Przewalski uncovers a tangle of sexual deceit, betrayal,

This was a well written book.
The story was great and I found myself tearing through the pages.
Very intriguing mystery read for sure.
The characters were great. And it had a fabulous ending.

Thanks to NetGally publishers and author for this gifted ebook!

When the star paleontologist of the Pittsburgh Carnegie Institute goes missing while on a dinosaur dig in the Wyoming Badlands, PI Harry Przewalski is hired to find him. But whenHarry, once a student of paleontology himself, arrives at the site, no one seems particularly worried. The man was known as a notorious womanizer and everybody, including the local sheriff, seems to think he just ran off with his latest conquest. However, as Harry gets to know everyone at the dig, he begins to suspect there may be more to the disappearance than anyone is saying. Everyone seems to have a reason for wanting the man gone. But, although motives are plentiful, clues are not and as the scientists prepare to pack it in, he is no closer to an answer. But Harry is not one to give up easily despite the lack of cooperation of both the dig crew and the townsfolk and even after he takes a dangerous fall that may or may not have been an accident.

Okay, I've got to admit when I started The Bone Field (A Harry Przewalski Novel Book 1) by Leonard Kristalka, I liked the idea of a noir set at a dinosaur dig but I wasn't really expecting a whole lot - frankly, I would be satisfied with a solid 3 star mystery. It definitely exceeded my expectations. In fact, I can honestly say it's one of my favourite novels so far this year. It is a real page turner and not just because of the mystery which, as intriguing as it was, ended up taking second place to the vivid descriptions of the Badlands, the in-fighting of the scientists, the history of the area, but most of all, the dinosaur facts Krishtalka, a paleontologist himself blends into the novel. This is one smart, highly compelling mystery debut and I recommend it to anyone who likes their mysteries with a bit of science mixed with a great noir detective and a solution that kept me guessing right until the ending. I will definitely be reading more in this series.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Anamcara Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

My thoughts

Rating: 4

Genre: Historical Fiction

Series:Harry Przewalski series #1

Would I recommend it? yes

would I read more of this series? Yes in fact I have book 2 to read and review

Would I read more by this author? Yes

While it it slow though out the book for some unknown reasons I ended up liking it a lot more then I thought I would because of it, in fact the pacing helped in a lot of reasons and to name a few it helped bring the places and descriptions as well as the characters to life, and it even give it the feeling like it was one of my old detective books or movies that I love t read and watch.Another thing is that the main character was a former-paleontology-student turned private-detective which is way different then anything I've read because even in the old detective stories the main character was a cop of some shorts or even a soldier that become came a detective. And while it was slow like I said before it still had everything that make a great mystery which is Drama, mystery, fights, and plot twists . With that said I want to say think you the publisher as well as the author and Netgalley for letting me read and review it.

An exciting, thrilling, mystery, with a plethora of archaeological details and historical background, THE BONE FIELD is a very engrossing and complex read. As much as I enjoyed the history, the archaeological expositions, and the various finely-delineated settings, from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museums to the Wyoming Badlands, once home to Dinosaurs on the Range, for me the heart of the book was the unfolding character of the protagonist, Harry Przewalski, former graduate student, veteran, now private investigator. Author Leonard Krishtalka performs an archaeological dig on his protagonist 's heart and character, much like Harry once did during his tenure as a Paleontology graduate student. Thankfully this is the first of a series, and I plan to devour them all.

I had high hopes for this book. A real slow burner. A mystery crime novel which seemed to go nowhere. I struggled to finish this book. Saying that I am sure other readers will enjoy it more just not for me.
Thanks to Anamcara Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Plot: During an excavation Peter Marchand, Carnegie's Museum of Natural History star paleontologist, goes missing. Harry Przewalski, a paleontologist turned detective and one of Peter's ex-students, is called to find him before the news reaches the press. But with Peter nowhere to be found and a group of six people motivated enough to murder, the case leads him to darker paths than he might have ever suspected.

For the first half, I was disappointed. I expected a lot more action and intrigue, yet pretty much nothing happened. I almost gave up on the book. Now I thank myself for completing it. The second half included everything I anticipated. Drama, mystery, fights, and plot twists. The premise was great, and the characters appeared real. However, there were several characters to focus on and little time to form an emotional bond with any of them. The writing was great. The narrator was a master of his art, even though some parts felt longer or more detailed than they should. Every character had a distinct voice. In certain parts the dialogue was unnatural, but nothing seemed forced. For me, the most significant downside was the description of some female characters. Overall, it is a book I would recommend to anyone who is into mystery and crime novels.

An interesting novel about a missing paleontologist, Peter Marchand, in the bone fields of Wyoming. Harry Przewalski a private detective with a background in paleontology has been hired to find him. Peter is a famous Paleontologist who is a terrible womanizer has made many enemies both within the field and in the surrounding community. Harry follows up on many theories before finally uncovering the antagonist. This was a fast paced mystery with interesting characters all of whom had reasons to murder Peter.